Trois Quintetti, Op. 57

Abstract

T HE last years of the eighteenth century were not happy ones for Luigi Bocehe¬rini (1743-1805). After the wise govern¬ment of Charles III, an enlightened monarch, there was the rash mismanagement of his son, Charles IV : inflation and the fall in value of royal pensions, the first symptoms of the country's political and social divisions, only served to weaken the unity and confidence of the Spanish communities. Moreover, patrons had disappeared. After the death of the Infante, Don Luis, in 1785, for whom Boceherini had written so much, Charles III had generously continued the awards granted by his royal brother in 1770, and Charles IV, on the death of his father in 1788, had the good grace to continue this official support, which was not the case with the son and successor to the King of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm II, who had been a great lover of the works of Boceherini. What was even worse was that the Duke and Duchess of Ossuna. from the powerful rival family of the Alba house, who had been great patrons to the composer, were suddenly sent on a diplomatic mission to Paris, where they settled in January 1799. The only link which remained between Boceherini and other coun¬tries was this distant patronage from Paris. Since his own stay in that town in 1767-68, the composer had remained in constant contact with the great Parisian publishers : Venier, La Chevardiere. Imbault andSieber, who were all ever ready to print the composer's output. At the very end of the eighteenth century, it was Pleyel's turn to strive to acquire the most recent manuscripts of Boceherini, despite the difficulties of epistolary correspondence. It was in this rather anxious climat that Borcherini decided, in 1799, to offer to France six new quintets with piano. The reading of an article in la Decadephilosophique of the 30 Fructidor an VI (16th September 1798) had prepared the way. It said that Princes, despite the pride of their rank, great ladies, despite the vanity of their titles, beautiful women and littlegentleman,despite their weakness. Went up for the first time to a fifth storey to hear the celestial music of Boceherini playedby [the violonist) Viotti".